Six leading tech firms have formed a patent alliance in order to encourage expansion of WiMax, an emerging high-speed wireless technology, a Reuters report said.
Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco , Clearwire, Intel, Samsung Electronics and Sprint hope that the creation of a patent pool will help companies designing for WiMax get access to licenses to patented technology at a predictable cost, the companies said.
'It's about openness predictability of the business model,' said Scott Richardson, an executive with Clearwire, quoted by the Reuters report.
The companies said in a statement that the alliance, called Open Patent Alliance, was 'to help ensure product differentiation and interoperability at a more predictable cost.'
'This approach will focus on providing a more competitive royalty structure by charging only for the features required to develop WiMax products,' they added.